It Is What It Is

Featuring the most innovative Canadian artists working today, this visually stunning publication is an essential reference for students, teachers and collectors. Attesting to the National Gallery's commitment to collecting contemporary Canadian art, three essays and over fifty individual presentations provide a thorough overview of emerging, mid-career and senior artists from all regions, traditions and backgrounds.Josee Drouin-Brisebois details the unique ways contemporary Canadian artists tackle the state of the world with interdisciplinary modes of self-expression that explode traditional categories, materials and genres.Greg Hill asserts that Indigenous art in Canada has deep roots and that artists of First Nations, Metis and Inuit descent are heirs to an ancient history. He traces the ongoing emergence of indigenous art into the forums of the contemporary art milieu in Canada and internationally.Andrea Kunard tracks how photography continues to adroitly position itself on the cusp of the analogue and the digital, exploiting both technologies to create works that exist in both fact and fiction.Among the many artists featured are David Altmejd, Shuvani Ashoona, Mary Anne Barkhouse, Rebecca Belmore, Shary Boyle, Geoffrey Farmer, Adad Hannah, Wanda Koop, Tim Lee, Tim Pitsiulak, Yannick Pouliot, Steven Shearer, Jeff Wall, Chih-Chien Wang and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun.